Preventing Pain and Stress-Related Ill-Health in Employees: A 6-Months Follow-Up of a Psychosocial Program in a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.
Hedvig Zetterberg, Christiana Owiredua, Pernilla Åsenlöf and 8 others
PMID 36308628WHAT IT FOUND
Neither a supervisor-employee communication program nor psychoeducation reduced sick leave days or improved health outcomes in employees with pain and stress.
The communication program showed no benefit over the educational lectures.
Key findings
01The primary outcome of total sick leave days showed no significant difference between the communication program and the psychoeducation control group.
02Secondary outcomes including work ability, pain disability risk, exhaustion symptoms, and perceived stress did not differ significantly between groups over time.
03A significant difference in perceived social support was found in the complete data analysis but not in the intention-to-treat analysis, suggesting it may be due to chance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was underpowered because the sample size calculation did not account for the cluster design effect. The population was heterogeneous and not selected based on high psychosocial risk, which may have diluted potential effects. Attrition was high, with only about half of the recruited employees providing data at the 6-month follow-up. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected recruitment, intervention delivery (shift to online), and potentially the outcomes. The follow-up period was shortened from the original plan due to pandemic-related delays.
Declared interests
Funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare and Uppsala University. No conflicts of interest declared by authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that workplace communication training is ineffective for all employees. This study targeted a broad, low-to-moderate risk population and was underpowered due to the cluster design. The null results may reflect the heterogeneity of the sample rather than the inefficacy of the intervention for high-risk groups.